Class and Voting

Written by Charlotte Mitchell-Dunn (Nov 2005)

Study the extract below (combined with the 2001 and 2005 results data) to answer part (A), (B) and (C) which follow.

Class and Voting

[In the 2001 general election there was a slid Labour gain in winning the Middle class support and a Conservative gain in winning working class support. Classes A, B and C1 swung by 2 per cent to Labour, consolidating the party’s advances in winning the support of “Middle England”. Compared with 1997, the conservatives won increased support from the working classes in 2001, particularly from the social classes D and E. Long- term factors appear to have a declining influence on voting behaviour and few today would describe Britain’s major parties as class parties. Labour, in particular, has developed a “catch-all” party.]

(A) Explain the term class parties used in the extract. [8 Marks]

The term “class parties” which is featured within the extract refers to the strong apparent relationship between social background and voting. From past studies of election data it was clear to see that members from the same class category tended to vote for the same party. The most common example of this is that of the relation between member of the working class, voting for the labour party and members of the upper and middle classes, voting conservative. Often because of the occurrence of this relationship, political parties tended to gear their policies towards the social group, which they appeal to most. This tactic leaded to partisanship, where voters identifying themselves with a party because of their social class or background.

However this relationship has seen a turn around in recent years due to a number of social and economic factors, in general there has been a break down of the rigid social class structure. There has also been structural change, which has changed the configuration of the working class. Sectoral cleavage has also emerged in both the public and private sector, causing further class party dealignment. The result of the changes caused by class dealignment has meant that political parties have had to changes their market in order to appeal to more than one social class, so they are able to gain a strong majority within government. An example of this is the changes towards the labour market which began in 1997 this allowed the party to appeal to the middle class, making the number of class based votes fall steadily between the 1997,2001 and 2005 elections. These changes have now pushed the Conservative party into appeal to members of the working class as this is a vital measure if the party want to gain sufficient support, in order for them to regain power.

(b) ‘Voting behaviour is increasingly influenced by short term factors’ discuss (22 marks)

Prior to the 1970s the majority of voters would know where their support lay in a general election well in advance. This was because most voters would have partisanship with a particular political party owing to a number of factors the most apparent being class. However this relationship began to decline the the1970’s due to the trends of partisan and class dealignment. As a consequence there was a break down in voting trends, voting behaviour changed and members of the public began to base their vote on other issues rather than class and partisanship, one of these issues was on short term factors.

What is a short-term factor?

Short-term factor in terms of voting behaviour are occurrences, which happen close to an election. The most apparent example of a short-term effect is an election campaign and the media. However there are other factors which people may consider when deciding how to cast their vote, these all come from the rational choice theory and include issue voting, party leader, economic voting and governing competence.

Examples of short-term effects

Election campaigns

Most political parties run a choreographed election campaign this will include advertising and agenda setting in order to gain those few target seats. Most political parties will constantly advertise and canvas an area in which the seat is marginal. Clever advertising and polished election campaigns sway votes to vote in a particular direction.

Media coverage

The mass media has a huge influence on the forming and reflection of public opinion and not only during elections but also throughout the year the media reports on politics often with its own biased opinion toward political parties and current issues. It can be argued that newspapers play an impact on voting behaviour with the evidence of their close coverage during election campaigns.

Issue voting

Issue voting consists of electors voting for a party, which offers the best policy programme to cater to their own personal interests. This over the years has caused political parties competing to have the best policies, which gain the maximum amount of votes. These issues usually include the important factors to the public such as health, education, the NHS and the economy. However this sector can include topical issues of the time examples of this are the Iraq war, immigration issues, and the debate whether the UK should become party of Europe and in some cases where a particular party stands on topical legislation.

Party leaders

A party leader is another example of a short-term effect as members of the public may consider the leader of a political party to be an extremely important factor therefore cast their vote based upon this factor. It could be considered that Tony Blair was more popular than John Major in the 1997 general elections and this is why the Labour party won by landslide in this election.

Economic voting

An additional short-term factor, which affects voting behaviour, is the economy. Some members of the electorate will vote for the political party that they believe are most likely to improve the economic situation of the day. In the 1992 elections the conservatives persuaded the public that their economic state was stable however the Essex model predicted that before the 1997 election the public believed they could not continue this, the Essex model believes this was a factor, which contributed to the labour landslide in the 1997 election.

Governing competence

Government competence is a final short-term effect this relies on the idea that voters may judge the party in power on its overall efficiency. If a political party performs well in office they a said to be reward during the election period.

Arguments that support the idea that short-term factors are increasingly influencing voting behaviour?

There are many reasons why short-term factor are and have affected voting behaviour the most affluent of these is the break down in the in class and partisan alignment because of this break down members of the public are more likely to turn to short term effects when deciding whom to vote for in an election. Voters no long feel the need to vote for a certain party, because of this occurrence members of the public must turn to the short term effects in order to make a rational decision when voting.

Another reason why short-term factors have and are affecting voting behaviour is the recent increase in voter apathy, because of this presents members of the public are less likely to become involved in politics therefore they may only concentrate on short-term effects as they feel they have no attachment to a party.

A further argument for the increasing influence of voting behaviour is controversial issues, which lead members of the public to use there vote to express their views on issues. Common examples of these are the Iraq war and parties political stances on topical issues and factors such as tax, education and the NHS.

The Iraq war sparked a number of protests and was an issue, which divided the country for a long time labours votes were affected by this and briefly in opinion polls Labours was overturned due to this factor. This lead to distrust in the party and as an investigation was lead into reasons for going to war the party began to loss support increasingly.

Often topical issues sway the public’s votes such as fuel and immigrations these topics often sway the opinion poll voting and during the times of fuel crisis in 2000 members of the public protested leading them to be very in poles.

Finally factors of general public concern often affect the public voting behaviour these are issues like tax, education and the NHS they feature strongly in election campaigns and therefore it can be argued that they are factors which do affect the publics voting behaviour.

Is the influence of short-term factors influential enough to affect an election outcome?

Although there is a number of arguments that show that short-term factor are becoming increasingly influential it must be examined whether this influence is enough to affect an election outcome therefore making it a genuine influence.

Firstly we must consider the criticisms of the rational choice theory which feature issue voting, vote affected by party leaders, votes based on economy and governing competence. The criticism has been made that the theory exaggerates the extent at which voter think rationally and make informed political decisions and believes that many voters will not be informed or interested by current affair therefore the short-term effects are not likely to influence their vote. It could also be argued that although class dealignment is becoming apparent it may be said that the dealignment is not strong enough to cause voter to turn to short-term effects when making the decision of whom to vote into offices.

Finally it could be argued that short-term factors only affect a small majority which is not enough to become influential as most voter base their vote on long term factors.

In conclusion having studied all the elements of short-term factors influence upon voting behaviour I believe that there is sufficient evidence to suggest that short-term factors are increasingly being applied when members of the public cast their vote during election times.

(c) Discuss, compare and evaluate the 2005 general elections results in terms of class, gender, and any other relevant issues [15 marks]

The 2005 general elections produced a number of interesting results, which help so trends within voting when compared and evaluated according to the results and both the 1997 and 2001 general elections. I have decided to concentrate within my essay not only on the trends in class and gender but those apparent in age, race and political apathy.

Class

When studying the factor of class in terms of the 2005 general election and comparing that with data from previous elections two trends become apparent. These are the voting tendencies of the working classes and middle and upper classes.

Prior to 1997 elections class alignment was strong for the working, middle and upper classes, with working class people voting labour and middle and upper class people voting conservative. However if you study the results from the 1997, 2001 and most importantly 2005, it can be seen that class dealignment has taken place. In 1997 61 % of voters from the working class vote Labour this decreased to 55% in 2001 and the number were further reduced in 2005 with only 48 % of the working class voting Labour. The election results showed that on the other hand the conservatives made a steady gain at gaining the support of the working class. This could be due to a number of factors for example voter could be considering short term effects or becoming involved in current affairs.

The middle class and upper class groups show similar signs of dealignment. Within the upper class there is an increasing loss of support for the conservatives with a decrease from 42% in 1997 to 37% in 2005. The middle class groups are a bit more complex they have shown a decrease in support towards labour and a minor increase in conservative support however all classes increased in their support with the liberal democrats.

Gender

The results of the general election have also shown interesting trends within gender with changes mainly from the males in voting patterns. In recent years men have to lost support in the Labour government and the numbers of males voting for the party has rapidly decreased. This is show by comparing the 1997 election where Labour gain 44% of the male vote comparing t to the 2001 election where this figure decreased by 2 % then again in 2005 where it decreased by a huge 8%. There has not been such a rapid change within women and although their support in Labour has decreased it has not decreased quiet so rapidly. Male support for the conservatives and liberal democrats has increased slightly and more so with the liberal democrats. This has not been the same with female with support remaining the same for the Conservative’s; however there has been a rise in support for the liberal democrats. The lack of rapid change in female support could be explained by a number of factors the main one being that women may be more satisfied with current government and less likely to change their vote.

Age

In recent years there has been a change in the voting behaviour of young women. These women tend to be more left wing than older women because of factors such a work and education and in some cases have turned to elements of feminist politics. The conservatives have also gain advantages from age, as they have been able to continually perform well with older voters. In 1997 one third of conservative voters were under 45, while in 2001 the conservative party lead Labour in the over 65 category this was similar in 2005 also

Race

The 2005 results on race have been had to trace however from the results from the 1997 and 2001 elections it is easy to predict the out come. The Labour government won 78% of the Black and Asian vote in 1997 his then decreased to 75 % in 2001 and from this it can be predicted that Labour would have made further losses in 2005 but these like the previous would not have been dramatic, as ethnic groups tend to favour the labour party because of their more liberal policies towards immigration.

Apathy

There have been dips in voter apathy in recent years with the general turn out in 1997 being reasonably high at 71.5 %, however this took a dramatic fall in 2001 with a huge drop to a 59.4% turn out. Numbers of people turning out to vote in 2005 however did rise to 61.3% but it could be argued that this is not an effective increase and a trend of voter apathy is still present.

In conclusion the 2005 elections provided evidence for a number of trends within voting behaviour with this and by comparing other previous elections data and results allows a person to gain a sufficient insight into the voting behaviour of members of the public within the UK and reasons why people vote in the way that they do.

Bibliography

· UK government and politics

· British politics in focus

· Understanding government and politics

· Class resources

· Website on election results